Quick UK Review: Snoopy! the Musical

Snoopy strikes me as a rather bizarre concept for a musical. Though the cartoons themselves are not rooted in time, the audience for which they are intended seems to be more so. Its place nowadays lies in newspapers read by adults, not comics read by children, and those who 'grew up on Snoopy' are now too old for the show's target audience. Having not 'grown up on Snoopy', my knowledge was fairly non-existent – even to the fact where I confused one character as being a dog in the stage version. It was, in fact, Woodstock the Bird. Silly me?

The show comes across as an enjoyable revue of colourful song-and-dance numbers, threaded together loosely by familiar characters with easily identifiable personality traits – Sally Brown being the girly-girl, Peppermint Patty being the tomboy and so on. The drawings translate well to the stage with animated expressions and a quirky bold design.

<>The casting is perfect. Clare Louise Connolly, as blonde Sally Brown, fits ideally into her role. Robin Armstrong has the voice for Snoopy and Kellie Ryan has the feistiness for Patty. But they're all good, the singing is spot-on and the choreography slick. Highlights in the evening come in the songs, which can easily stand alone out of the context of the show. Don't Be Anything Less Than Everything You Can Be is a rare musical theatre treat performed with great comic timing. By the end of the evening, you find yourself drawn in to Snoopy's imaginative world (spot the pun!).  

The problems that lie with Snoopy are in the material itself. As a production of this show, this Snoopy is easily a definitive outing, and a well-paid tribute to its 21st Anniversary.

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